The OPENFLOW technology is proposed by the Standford University and is aimed at resolving, based on an existing Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) technology condition and with an innovative network interconnection concept, bottlenecks generated when a current network faces a new service. The core idea of the OPENFLOW technology is to convert a data packet forwarding process completely controlled by a switch/a router into independent processes separately completed by an OPENFLOW switch and a controller.
The OPENFLOW switch executes, in an OPENFLOW network, a command from the controller and matches a received data packet with a flow table in the OPENFLOW switch. The OPENFLOW switch forwards a successfully matched data packet to a corresponding port, and forwards an unsuccessfully matched data packet to the controller, and the controller determines a forwarding action of the data packet.
The inventor finds by researching that in a process in which the OPENFLOW switch forwards a large quantity of unsuccessfully matched data packets to the controller, when there are too many unsuccessfully matched data packets and a forwarding load exceeds a forwarding capability of the OPENFLOW switch, the OPENFLOW switch invalidates some unsuccessfully matched data packets. The invalidated data packets may include a relatively important data packet, and consequently, an important data packet is discarded.